Military Insignias, Buckle & Coins

[SDIceMan]

Morning all. I picked up this great shadowbox comprised of military insignias, a buckle, and a few coins, at a church sale in a neighboring town. Some appear to be fabric and felt and a handful of them look metallic. The coins have asian characters. Anybody know the significance of any of the pieces? If I can identify one or two pieces, I might be able to narrow my research in order to identify the rest. Thank you so much in advance!

 

[GregK]

Looks Japanese to me. The rank bars (red & yellow stripes w/stars) appear to be of Japanese origin.

 

[SDIceMan]

Greg, I think you hit the nail on the head. I don't know why, but for some reason, probably finding it like I did in the United States, I was narrow-minded and just assumed they were the military keepsakes of an Allied serviceman. But I think you're right about everything pictured being Japanese in origin. I guess then as a follow-up question - does anything in the photos appear rare or valuable? Thanks!

 

[GregK]

Unfortunately I can't say with 100% certainty that they are Japanese. The rank tabs certainly do look the part but some of the other stuff is totally foreign to me. I am not that up on Imperial Japanese insignia as my study has generally focused on the European Theatre of Operations. Perhaps a quick search on Imperial Japanese military insignia would harvest some results. Alternatively I would look to identifying the coins themselves for a concrete answer.

Here's a starting point (and the one which led me to deduce Japanese origin): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_ranks_of_the_Japanese_Empire_during_World_War_II

Can't help at all with value I'm afraid. Perhaps you can have a look here and see if something matches:

The Collector's Guild

Hope that was of some help.

Greg

 

[Carolina Tom]

These are Japanese. They have cherry blossoms all over them! The three patches from the top, in the middle, are cherry blossoms designs.

One of the coins is a 50 sen! Japanese emperial coin, here is the one I found. Brought home by a WW2 vet... and dropped in the front yard at some point.

I believe the belt buckle has the same image as the 50 sen coin, but I can't see it well enough to confirm.

That's a nice display, congrats!

 

[Beans]

Excellent find.

 

[diggummup]

Nice find. I like the buckle the best.

 

[SDIceMan]

Thanks to everyone for the contributions. With your push in the right direction, I think I was able to find the same buckle sold on eBay for $46:



That is a pleasant surprise since I'm only into this little collection for a whopping $5.

 

[StillDiggin555]

Nice find! Congrats.